A new City of Whittlesea Community grant program will start with an urgent round for food share organisations in light of the rising cost of living.
Council endorsed a new Community Grants framework at its June 27 meeting following community consultation, with the new program to offer six grant categories – small, medium, large, individual, unincorporated groups and emergency grants.
A significant change is the introduction of year-round grants, with approval rounds conducted on a monthly or quarterly basis.
Emergency grants are also now proposed to provide immediate support to eligible applicants experiencing unforeseen financial hardship.
Chair administrator Lydia Wilson said the new program would ensure a more equitable approach to sharing funds, with the first round of grants providing food share groups a share in $100,000 for food relief.
“With rising cost of living pressure, our community groups are telling us that they’ve had an increase in people seeking food relief so we are pleased to be able to respond with this funding boost,” she said.
“We hope this will enable them to continue to provide these important services and programs to those in our community who are experiencing difficult times.”
Council has also endorsed an increase in total grants funding of 33 per cent, with much of the increase going to support seniors’ groups.
“This new grants program will enable us to better partner with our community to support the brilliant work being done by many organsiations and individuals in our community,” Ms Wilson said.
Council will host information sessions about the changes and reach out to community groups in coming weeks before the grant program is launched in August.
For more information, visit whittlesea.vic.gov.au/grants.
